in all honesty, onika hasn’t grown as an artist *or* maintained a fresh, signature sound. that’s separate from cardi’s sound as a rapper, which is still developing. onika has also spent time attacking other artists instead of working on her craft. it shows. https://twitter.com/HotCocoaTing/status/1094957266464399360

further, onika took off at a time when there was *no competition for her*. cardi’s landscape includes young ma, missy, megan, city girls, rico, bbymutha. in the 10 or so years since onika came around the whole function of the industry has changed drastically.

those we could at one point mock as soundcloud artists are able to use that as leverage. booking gigs. getting label deals if they want them. onika occupies a space between the late digital era (when ppl still bought CDs) and this new digital/ streaming era.

leikeli47 exists in this landscape. she’s a culmination of a lot of things — clearly influenced by jay, big, missy, kelis, and wu. and she’s *working on her shit*. every sound is different. every song is in relationship to her other work. onika comes off as disjointed musically.

let me give an example: “barbie tingz,” before we heard it, suggested that mixtape onika might be back. ting is patois — so maybe we could have expected dancehall influences on the song. that’s not what happened. that song was just kinda ... out there. unanchored.

that one critic called the album a joyless mess. her fans had seemingly nothing to say about the actual album outside of “go buy it,” or whatever. the tour got canceled. comparing her as an established act to cardi’s brand new career is silly. it also tells you about the music.

it’s not just that cardi is authentically herself. it’s not just that she’s charming or specifically because she’s light skinned (onika changed at least two shades in the last 10 years). it’s a combo of things. not the least of which is being an accessible “personality” on IG.

she’s self referential without being annoying. she’s not explaining her lyrics to us to gas herself.

also, the typical career span of an emcee is max 12 years nowadays. ppl know the end comes and they need to have a second or third career. the exceptions are few. jay, busta, missy, push, tip, black thought. still making music that ppl are fucking with.

cardi just got here.

onika has *been* here and managed to make cardi an enemy when she should have been studying her own fucking art. a joyless mess, indeed.

when you mind the business that pays and enriches you >>>>>>